now this has potential

HealthLinx – financial goal for OvPlex ovarian cancer diagnostic product
20% market share objective for Australia after 3 years
16 May 2008, Melbourne: Diagnostics company HealthLinx Limited (ASX:HTX) projects 20 percent market share for its OvPlex ovarian cancer diagnostic product in Australia within three years. This will be the company’s first ovarian cancer diagnostic, due to be launched in Australia in the third quarter of 2008 and will be distributed by ARL Pathology.
The price for OvPlex in Australia will be $200 per test. Packaging, manufacturing and promotions strategy has been finalised.
The Australian market for the current ovarian cancer diagnostic CA125 is approximately 90,000 units at a value of $15million per annum.
OvPlex has demonstrated a diagnostic efficiency of 94 percent for the detection of early stage ovarian cancer. The goal is to capture 20 percent of the current market or 18,000 units and grow the market which would result in over $500,000 annual royalty revenue.
“We also expect that the market will grow by at least 20 percent over the next three years due to superior performance of OvPlex,” says Mr Nick Gatsios managing director of HealthLinx.
“The company is currently in discussions with a number of parties to out license the product and once we secure a market with a population greater than 50 million people the company would generate positive earnings based on the Australian revenue model.”
The company is also developing a pipeline of more advanced ovarian cancer diagnostics expected to be launched from the medium term.
HealthLinx specialises in ovarian cancer biomarkers and the development of multi-marker diagnostic tests using biomarkers. Biomarkers highlight the presence of particular compounds in blood and other body fluids that indicate disease or the effects of treatment.
Ovarian cancer develops without overt symptoms and usually by the time it has been diagnosed the cancer has spread beyond the ovaries and into the abdomen, bladder, bowel and omentum. Because there is no community-based screening test for ovarian cancer, over 75 percent of cases are diagnosed in the advanced stages and over 80 percent of these women will die within five years. If ovarian cancer is detected at an early stage and effectively treated, survival rate is more than 80 percent.
In the US about 23,000 women were diagnosed last year with about 14,000 deaths. The percentage is similar in Western Europe and Australia. In Australia, there were about 1,300 new cases of ovarian cancer diagnosed and over 900 deaths reported.
Global sales of the current late stage diagnostic are about US$260 million per annum.
www.healthlinx.com.au
ABN 88 098 640 352
Laboratories / Accounts
576 Swan Street, Richmond, VIC, 3121 p. +61 3 9208 4200 f. +61 3 9208 4201